Welcome to Dirang

In 2007, the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission finally accepted the earnest invitation of the people of Dirang and their local MLAs and Ministers, to run a school in their district. There are nearly 420 villages in West Kameng and Tawang, mainly inhabited by the Monpa tribe of Arunachal Pradesh.

About Us

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, the great patriot saint of India, had an unerring vision of the rejuvenation of his motherland. With a firm conviction, he said, “The national ideals of India are renunciation and service. Intensify her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself.” He knew that there would be no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women was improved as it was not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing. In one of his letters, he said, “Hence it is that my first endeavour is to start a Math for women.”

Aim of the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission is service to the society, especially to women and children. Swami Vivekananda said, ‘Certain individuals are the sacrifices over which the race has to walk.’ He believed that without feminine power the world could not be regenerated and he had faith in the potential of women to transform society in a relatively shorter period of time. Swami Vivekananda said, ‘Educate the women of India and let them solve their own problems. Why should any man solve any woman’s problems?’ He foretold that this work for women would exceed the responsibility of the work for men.

The Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi is the central figure of the women’s Math. Her life was a blazing fire of knowledge and sacrifice. The Holy Mother was the embodiment of Motherhood. Members of the Math and Mission continue to work with these attitudes, behavior and methods. Following her ideal, this Math, in her name, seeks to preserve and manifest with intimate loving concern for each individual, seeing all and serving all alike as God in human form. Swami Vivekananda revived the ancient ideal of sacrifice, in modern times, in the form of service to suffering humanity. All work is done in the spirit of worship.

Genesis

Ramakrishna Sarada Mission received invitation from the State Education Department as well as from the Minister level to establish a school in the western part of Arunachal Pradeh. The project was launched by the then Chief Minister Sri Dorjee Khandu in February 2008, in the West Kameng District in the the presence of leading Monpas on the land offered by locals (acquired by the Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh). It was in this year that the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Centre was set up. Eleven acres of land covering 3 plots, were donated about 14 km from the Dirang Township, for the purpose of running a girls’ school and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Girls' School in Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh was established in 2011. The complete project is run on a single plot.

There are nearly 420 villages in West Kameng and Tawang districts, mainly inhabited by the Monpa tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. As this is a border State with a low female literacy rate, creating awareness of the need for women’s education will have a large social impact. The Monpa tribal children, and especially the girls, will not only improve their own living conditions but will motivate other girls to educate themselves holistically.

India’s patriotic prophet Swami Vivekananda laid great emphasis on the education of women as a key factor in uplifting the masses and building a new India.

About the School

Ramakrishna Sarada Mission centre at Dirang was officially inaugurated by Most Revered Pravrajika Amalaprana Mataji, General Secretary, Sri Sarada Math & Ramakrishna Sarada Mission on the auspicious day of Buddha Purnima on 17th May 2011; school was started with 49 residential students from Arunachal Pradesh in general and from West Kameng and Tawang Districts in particular.

In each successive year a new class is added to accommodate the current batch of students and currently the student strength stands at 236 (2016-2017). Over the last 6 years the school has created a rigorous internal assessment system to evaluate the performance of students, including “Formative and Summative Tests”. The school lays great emphasis on developing the overall personality of the child, keeping the traditional customs as it is. To achieve this goal, several competitions and events including Recitation, Drawing, Extempore, Story Writing, Story Telling, Quiz, Science Day, Sports Day, Arunachal Day and National Youth Day are organized with much zeal. Many of these competitions are conducted by external organizations and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Girls’ School has won the top prizes in most of these competitions. The students of the school have a special talent for painting and have participated in several competitions, including State Level.

CBSE Affiliation

Students have participated in Quiz Competitions conducted at National YAK Centre & won top prizes competing with other schools of the district

Students participate in the Science Exhibition conducted at National YAK Research Centre every year and have won top prizes

Regular extra-curricular activities, forming a part of their overall assessment include, Yoga, Drawing/Painting and Vocational Training. Vocational training includes embroidery, stitching and weaving which is separately taught, with a view to specifically promote the culture of the region.

The students of the school have a special talent for painting and have participated in several competitions, including State Level.

The school also runs the “Know Your Country” project, in which students and escorts from Kolkata visit the school. This project aims at increasing interaction amongst students from various regions and promoting exposure and awareness about our country & culture.

Apart from providing exposure to students to other regions in the country, the goal is to create a unified school, bringing together students from different regions in Arunachal Pradesh under one roof, to intermingle and learn from diversity.

How to integrate the students from the North-East with those from other regions of the country is one of the paramount goals of the institution. With this in mind, we are focused on creating an institution that provides the best-in-class facilities and resources to the students.

Building a culture of Discipline and Service

Building self-discipline and an attitude of service is strongly encouraged in the student through a process of allotting hostel and school routine duties for all students. Personal responsibility is expected for daily conduct and for the maintenance of harmony of the institution through a process of Continuous Assessment which evaluates students on discipline, behaviour and willingness to take up responsibilities in the betterment of their school.

Extra-Curricular Activities

Students learning stitching & embroidery as part of Vocational Training

Students learning the local art of weaving as part of Vocational Training

The Deputy Commissioner for West Kameng being shown students’ artwork

Apart from regular subjects, the children learn Art, Yoga, play a variety of Games and borrow books over the weekend from the School Library. Occasional trips outside the school are undertaken to explore the vast expanse of natural beauty, which surrounds the school.

The students are exposed to the richness of Ancient Indian History and Culture through the medium of audio-visual. Documentaries on India ranging from Partition of India, Bharat Ek Khoj Series, Upanishad Ganga Series, Discovery and National Geographic channel Series, Ramayana, Mahabharata and children’s movies are shown to the children regularly to expose them to the glory of our country. Weekends are often spent in gardening, cleaning the Mission Campus, playing indoor games in the Hostel courtyard or relaxing with a library book. On Saturdays, either a book reading or an informal chat with the children is conducted to share anecdotes and inspiring stories from the lives of Great Personalities and to allow the children an opportunity to interact closely with the staff.

As part of the yearly functions – children write scripts for dramas and stage the dramas with a variety of themes, the favourite themes being the Epics, Lives of Freedom Fighters such as Bhagat Singh and incidents from the lives of the Holy Trio – Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda. Local Traditional Tribal Dances including Bamboo dance are often staged at these functions with the children dressing up in their traditional attire and displaying the uniqueness of their state using various materials. On this special occasion senior children prepare local dishes.

Interaction with the World

Visitors regularly stream into the Mission Campus including senior officials such as the Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Local MLAs, research scientists from the National Yak Research Centre located in Dirang and officials from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Army and visitors from various parts of India and abroad. They are an intrinsic part of the school life, as they conduct seminars, competitions, health check-ups and address the student gathering on a variety of issues. In April, 2017, Classes 6-8 were taken to pay their respects to His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama on his visit to Dirang Town. It was an experience that all students cherished greatly. “On Visitor’s Day”, Students are allowed to spend time with their parents, during School Term, twice a year.

The location is very remote, with erratic postal service, no courier service, no internet connection available on Mission Campus and most of the time no phone connection. In such a challenging environment, the Mission has rapidly built the infrastructure in an attempt to provide the best to the students in developing their overall personality. This endeavor will continue with full vigour in many years to come, till the school is firmly established as a leading institution providing quality education.

Infrastructure

The efforts to build infrastructure over the last 6 years is shown below-

School auditorium. All functions, events & competitions held here

Inside view of the shrine

Dining Hall, Kitchen & Bakery located on the Ground Floor & temporary Shrine on first floor

View of the Students' Dining Hall

Inside view of School Auditorium

View of the Hostel on the right & New Hostel construction on the left

Recent additions and improvements to the infrastructure include, new dormitory/hostel block, computer laboratory, library, weaving section, new toilet block, renovation of existing buildings and laying of new waterline and creation of water storage facilities.

Newly Constructed Computer Laboratory with Practical and Theory Rooms

Inside view of the Computer Practical Room with 25 computers

Managing Committees

Managing Committee of The Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, Dirang

Holy Trio

Sri Ramakrishna

Sri Ramakrishna was born on 18 February 1836 in a poor and Brahmin family at Kamarpukur in Hoogly district. Kshudiram Chattopadhyay and Chandramani Devi were his parents. His real name was Gadadhar. From his early childhood Sri Ramakrishna was devoted to God. At the age nineteen he became a priest at the Kali Temple. He realised God in different names and forms of the one Supreme Being. Various eminent persons of the 19th Century were tremendously impressed by this Great Spiritual Leader. The foremost among his disciples was Swami Vivekananda, the embodiment of supreme Truth and its manifestations, Sri Ramakrishna breathed his last on 15th August, 1886 at Cossipore, Kolkata. Romain Rolland, a distinguished, world-renowned French writer and Nobel Laureate truly said "His inner life embraced the whole multiplicity of men and Gods."

Sri Sarada Devi

Sarada Devi was born on 22 December 1853 as the child of a pious couple, Ramachandra Mukhopadhyay and Shyama Sundari Devi. She had no formal Schooling. Sri Ramakrishna at the age of twenty-three married her and made her his companion for spititual attainments. He even worshipped her as the Divine Mother. Sarada Devi took care of Thakur's disciples as her own children. Owing to her purity, service, love and spiritual enlightenment, Swamiji regarded her as the ideal for women in the modern age. Swamiji wanted to start an independent monastic order for women on the same lines as Ramakrishna Math with Holy Mother as its centre. His dream came true when Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Mission were founded, which works on the lines of Ramakrishna Math and Mission.

Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda was born at Simla, in North Kolkata on 12th January, 1863. His early name was Narendra Nath Dutta. He graduated himself from Calcutta University. At the age of 18 he met Sri Sri Ramakrishna. He prayed to feel Divinity. To lose the 'I' in the vastness of consciousness which is beyond though-was Narendra Nath's intense desire. Sri Ramakrishna commissioned him for future work. He founded the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Belur Math. His organisation is permeated with a belief in the quasi-identity of the Macrocosm and the microcosm, of the universal Self and the individual self. He saw that in order to uplift the masses it was necessary to spread both secular and spiritual education among them. He has been working till today through the monks and followers to accomplish his dream. One remembers the words he spoke long before his death at the age of 39 only; 'It may be that I shall find it good to get outside my body to cast it everywhere, until the world shall know-that it is one with God'!

Place & People

Located in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in West Kameng district, Dirang is a pure pleasure to visit and one of the largest cities of the state. Majority of the area of the district is covered by the mighty Himalayas. The highest peak in the district and the state being “Kangte”.

Dirang Travel guide is incomplete without a mention of its rich cultural and spiritual legacy. The region around the Kameng River has conventionally under the lead of the Mon kingdom, Bhutan, Tibet and the Ahom kingdom. Lamaism got a powerful foothold among the tribal groups as early as in the 7th century, where the Kachen Lama founded the Lhagyala Gompa in Morshing.

Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, Dirang is located in the West Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh. The nearest town with rail connection is Tezpur, which is roughly 200 kms away. The location is normally reached via Guwahati in Assam. As Arunachal is not connected through an established railway network, most visitors take a vehicle from Guwahati, which is a journey of nearly 10 hours by road. From the Assam-Arunachal Border, one sees a distinct change in the landscape and density of population. Densely green and with a river accompanying the traveler from Bhalukpong (border town of Arunachal Pradesh), one is immediately struck by the beauty of the place. But the terrain is difficult, infrastructure is still developing and the drive is rough. Dirang town, which is the nearest town to the Mission Centre, has very basic facilities and provisions. Most needs of the Mission are met through regular transportation from Tezpur or Guwahati.

Recent Updates

CM inaugurates RKSM school at Khaso

Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Friday inaugurated the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission School at Khaso village in presence of MoS Home Kiren Rijiju, and parliamentary secretaries Phurpa Tsering and Kumsi Sidisow. The foundation stone for the school was laid in February 2008 by former chief minister late Dorjee Khandu and was started on 17th May, 2011 with enrolment of 49 students from all over Arunachal.

He lauded the contribution of Sarada Mission School in uplifting tribal girls, who are today well placed in different professions and have become assets to their community.

For the school to sustain financially, the chief minister announced Rs 5 crore as corpus fund. He also assured to sanction funds for building of transit camp cum administrative building at Guwahati for coordination between Sarada Mission, Khonsa and Dirang.

On land for transit camp, the chief minister assured to place request with the chief minister of Assam. On incompletion of various infrastructures works undertaken under NLCPR for the school, Pema assured to clear all pending document works and payment of state matching share.

In his message to the students, Pema advised them to come up to the expectations of their parents and the society. He also urged them to contribute back to the society. Earlier, the chief minister thanked the contributions of his father, late Dorjee Khandu and former Dirang MLA Tsering Gyurmey for bringing Sarada Mission to this remote corner of the state.

Rijiju in his speech also promised two buses for the school and also assured to take up incomplete infrastructure works under NLCPR for the school

RKSMGS student wins state level science seminar

ITANAGAR, Aug 28

Dogam Bagra of Rama Krishna Sarada Mission Girls’ School (RKSMGS), Khasso (West Kameng district), secured the first position in the state level science seminar which was held at Dera Natung Government College here on 27 August.

Mipili Mihu of RKSMGS, Khonsa (Tirap), and Tenzin Dolkar of VKV, Kitpi (Tawang) were adjudged second and third, respectively.

The topic of the seminar was ‘Industrial Revolution 4.0: Are we prepared?”

Dogam has been selected to represent the state at the national level competition, which will be held at Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technology Museum, Bangalore.

Secondary Education Director Gania Leij, who chaired the programme, said the performance by the students this year improved a lot compared to the previous years. He encouraged them to keep up the spirit and participate in such co-curricular activities for all-round development.

Leij urged the teachers to help the students in developing the scientific temper.

Principal of Government Polytechnic College, Itanagar, Dr AK Tripathi in his speech highlighted the importance of science and technology. He urged teachers, especially science teachers, to give more emphasis on improving the quality of the teaching-learning process. He advised the participating children to be dedicated to their studies, so that they could compete with other students of the country.

Eighteen students from different schools and districts participated in the state level science seminar. DDSE (S&M) Oyi Borang Tatak and GHSS Arunodaya Itanagar Principal Mimar Nyori also addressed the seminar.